. >> the mechanics, i mean, what we have -- on the obama side, you have an election that pretty much, you know, they took as a mandate, if you will, where, you know, the very issue of taxes was sort of legislative, and the americans basically said they agreed with the president, saying that taxes need to rise on the wealthy. and then you have the right wing of the republican party who won also by wide margins in many deeply conservative districts. and they think they have a mandate. so in a way, it's like the two mandates are canceling each other out. they each think that they are -- and that is why we're frozen. i don't know if it's been that way -- i don't know if the mechanics have been such that it has been so polarized to the point where it's been paralyzing. >> where they feel like they've each won. >> it doesn't baffle me, it sort of angers me is that the conservative republicans who won by overwhelming margins in their districts, the president's vote in state after state in the electoral college, it used to be in politics that there was more respect for the voter and the voter